Social bias in political elites. The case of politically-devolved Spain (1980-2005)

After 25 years of regional politics, little is known of those politicians that have held a seat in regional assemblies, especially their social profile, its evolution and whether or not this social profile mirrors the structure of society. For the first time, data presented in this article sheds some light over these issues. The author uses the independence and agglutination models, and the Social Bias Index, to find out that young and educated men born in the region they serve and mainly lawyers and educators have had more chances of entering the regional political elite than people with other profiles. The regional parliamentarian elite has changed its internal composition and has become more diverse in some respects (gender) but more homogeneous in others (internal migrants). The data shows, as well, a tendency towards the microcosmic model of representation.